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Celebrate Earth Day on April 22 and help students understand important environmental issues.

Featured Lesson Plans:

• No Magic Borders (K-2)
• Earth Day Every Day (3-5)
• Using Venn Diagrams to Compare Two Ecosystems (6-8)
• Climate and CO2: Analyzing their Relationship (9-12)

Check out some useful environmental resources at National Geographic:

• National Geographic Environment Site
  A collection of helpful facts, photo albums, videos, and interactives to help students understand issues such as global climate change, alternative energy sources, and environmental threats.
• EarthPulse
  Interactive maps, graphics, and diagrams that illustrate global connections and patterns of human development.
• National Geographic Environment Video Library
  Learn about the state of Earth, natural disasters, global warming, and measures you can take to make a difference.

Photograph courtesy NASA

Interactive fun for home or the classroom

What is your human footprint? Over 83 percent of Earth's surface is impacted by human influence: everything we consume and discard during our lifetime leaves a mark on the environment.

To learn more, watch Human Footprint premiering April 13 on the National Geographic Channel, and help students connect their actions to the global environment with these classrooms resources:

• Human Footprint Educators Resource contains all three activities in one pdf.
• Mapping Our Human Footprint has students use geographic analysis of a world map to learn where and to what degree human activity has influenced Earth.
• Perils of Plastic illustrates the human and environmental causes of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and features a classroom recycling activity.
• Protecting Earth's Wildlife examines how the rising demand for natural resources threatens wildlife and wild lands.

What you do counts! Use these resources to help you understand how your actions affect Earth and all its inhabitants:

• Preserve Our Planet
• The Green Guide

Photograph by Rebecca Hale

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